The contemporary world is all about the internet revolution. New technology, sales, marketing, and pretty much everything else revolves around it. It’s like the internet is a sun and everything else is either a planet or a moon. Not an astronomy fan? Let’s call the internet the nucleus and everything else it can be the rest of the cell. Technology in this modern age is at the epicenter of everything. One can use an infinite number of ways to explain that yet the fact would remain the same.
The internet gave birth to the wide world of web. It started as a new domain that expanded but its expansion seems never-ending. It has everything from knowledge to sports, earning to spending, and leisure to business incorporated into it. All you have to know is to look in the right place. For example, the simplest way to look for Spectrum Cable TV Packages and plans would be typing this phrase in a search engine and hit enter. You would get multiple results. Not all the results will be authentic though simply because everyone wants to get attention. And this is exactly what led to the innovation of digital marketing.
The advent of digital marketing witnessed websites utilize resources and tactics that would help them rank better and yield the desired results. The biggest search engine Google took it upon themselves to draw a line. They introduced a way to segregate the wanted from the unwanted – a process that bore better search results and necessitated less time scraping through websites and resources. It was meant to clear the air and improve the overall quality of the web. It started off with simple updates and quickly developed into a process we now call Search Engine Optimization or SEO.
SEO
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a skill that combines art & science in a rather methodically built framework. It is a process of driving targeted traffic to your website. The traffic needs to be both good in quality and quantity. Balance between the two must therefore be struck or the effort put in will yield no result. But what results?
Why SEO?
SEO is an organic process that drives traffic to your website – traffic that is directed via popular search engines. It involves a strategy which revolves around determining what people search for when they run a query that relates to your product. It is difficult for people to know about your website. It is easier to let them know what it is about. SEO does not mean you running after them rather you set up a trail using search engines which leads them to you. This ramps up the traffic to your website or webpage that translates into a greater number of sales.
Before we move onto the tools that aid in SEO here are a few terms you need to know:
- Keyword: This is a word that people may use for running a search. Every webpage needs to be optimized to draw visitors who used specific keywords
- Link Building: The process of attaining inbound links to your website for better search engine rankings
- SERP (Search Engine Ranking Page): This is a page that you see after you run a query in a search engine.
- Ranking factor: It is one of the many components that determine the ranking of a certain page.
If you are new you can see a detailed list of jargons or terms that are commonly used in SEO; these should get you started.
The Tools
Now that we know what SEO is and why is it important, here’s the list of tools that will help you make your SEO marketing campaign become a success.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a must have tool for SEO. It tracks almost everything on your websites. What catches our attention is the keyword insights it provides. It will let you know what keywords were used that landed people on your website. What good would that do? Knowing what gets attention is all you need to bank on to ramp up your sales. You move in the trajectory this insight offers and the next thing you know the number of people landing on your page grows which obviously helps increase your sales.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. It will also give you insights like bounce rates, page speed, traffic resources, time on site and more!
Ahrefs backlink checker
This tool is what it says it is. The free version comes with limitations but it still serves the purpose. What is it used for? Ahrefs Backlink Checker shows you the backlinks of your website and also the URL of the unique websites linking back to yours; not only that it tells you the domain rating or URL rating where applicable.
The interesting part is it is not limited to your website. You can use it for any website. This may prove interesting when you take a dive into your competitor’s web pages. It would show the same information for them as well. Looks like you have a bank of linking opportunities to avail!
Hunter.io
SEO is not a simple process. It involves a long list of items that pitch in to make your SEO strategy a success. To ensure you rank better and your keywords get the attention you want them to get, writing for other blogs is an essential part. Looking for relevant blogs is one thing but to find their contact details is quite another.
You will rarely find a blog that you can call and ask for requirements so they may publish your article on their website. What you will need is their email address. You will have to send ideas they might like or a even a write-up. It all starts with the email address! And this is where Hunter.io comes in. You can use this tool to find the email address of a specific website. Once you paste a URL it will show you results that not only include email addresses but it will also prompt you as to which ones are verified. Cool, right?
Hunter.io saves you a lot of time that you can spend on other SEO tasks. It, however, comes with a limitation. The free version only offers a specific number of free hits every month. The chrome extension though makes the task a little less daunting and, may even cover for this limitation.
Mozbar
SEO is the future. Search engines keep hanging algorithms that are more in tune with the user’s intent. And that keeps SEO specialists on their toes. Even a small update can have a major impact on your traffic and sales. This dynamic environment calls for an eye for changes that come unannounced most of the times. One of the surest ways to keep track is to know where you and your competitors rank.
This ranking system is predominantly divided into two parts, DA or Domain Authority, and PA or Page Authority. These rankings are like being marked out of 100 and this is how the SEO world keeps track of changes and progress made. MOZbar is an extension that helps you minimize and simplify tracking. It has a chrome extension and one for Firefox as well. Simply install them and you are good to go. Every time you visit a page it will tell their DA, PA and other data which depends on the subscription you have. The free version offers unlimited hits and there are no restrictions regarding the number of URLs you can search. The paid version will get a lot more goodies and tools. You get all this information even when you search something on a search engine. You will see a small indication below every search result displaying the information the bar gives you.
Comments 1